My freshman year of college, I took a class called LOGOS and in the first two weeks of class we had read Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and I was introduced to his phrase "Cogito Ergo Sum: I Think, Therefore I Am" and something about that idea has stuck with me ever since. The idea that the outside world is decieving and all that we can truly know is that we are thinking just really makes me think. I got that phrase tattooed on my upper lefthand shoulder to remind me that I am a "thinking thing" and as such, I need to use that to my advantage. I also decided on the phrase because it was the first real piece of LOGOS knowledge that I could say that I understood and really liked. It marked the beginning of my experience in that class/program and I got it in my last few weeks in the program last April. It not only represents that idea of thinking and intelligence, but it represents the program that has changed the way that I look at the world around me.
It's a simple tattoo, just three words written in a cursive script, but this simple piece of art that I have has changed the way that I look at others, just as the idea and class that it represents, which is a really cool thing. By having a tattoo of my own, I've stopped judging others. One of my best friends has tattoos and never in a million years would I have thought that I would hang out with people with tattoos, but you know what? I've already started looking at other tattoo ideas. Something about using your body as an artistic canvas and having meaningful, little pieces of work that aren't typically visible, is totally cool with me now. Now, I'm not going to go out and have my body covered in ink from head to toe, but I am not opposed to getting one or two more little tattoos. One of the biggest oppositions to getting a tattoo is the question of whether or not you'll like it as much when you get older, but I'm 20 years old. I have many more years to worry about that. I'll probably be thought of as a badass old lady some day with the cool, intellectual tattoo. Some of the most fascinating people I've ever met have been tatted up and I think there's something to say about that.
